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Tuesday, 7 August 2012

Cloudkicker - Fade

So if you like rock/metal and have been exploring the bandcamp thing properly you have probably already come across the sensation which is Cloudkicker. Cloudkicker (aka Ben Sharp) is the reason I've been so incredibly inspired by the whole bandcamp business model in the past year. This guy is doing it ABSOLUTELY right: making music purely for the love of making music, having no care what-so-ever for commercialism, utterly DIY down to the wire and using the "pay what/if you want" bandcamp thang to get his music out to anyone and everyone whether they wish to pay him for it or not. Apparently donations for the last couple of releases he's done have paid for a couple of new guitars and some new home studio gear. Brilliant! He also uses the digital download sales to pay upfront for getting CDs and vinyl manufactured for those wanting it physically. THIS GUY GETS IT! Check out how he's releasing his music and be inspired for how music can and should be released from now on.

Anyway, not only do I dig how he releases his music, I REALLY dig his music full stop. Plough through the whole Cloudkicker catalogue; every release is a gem. By "The Map is Not the Territory" he had utterly nailed the Prog Rock/Metal djent Meshuggah with soul and big fat riffs thing. Beacons is just perfect, pisses on anything else doing poly-rhythmic djent from a million miles away. The last couple releases have seen him get more into Mogwai style Post-Rock and the new one, Fade, takes that direction and shows off a lotta love for Siamese Dream era Smashing Pumpkins. It's still instrumental, it's still complex and poly-rhythmic, but it now sounds like it was produced by Butch Vig. Amazing!